Chapter 24: The True Method of Gene Fusion

"You said she left?" Ding Huan repeated involuntarily.

He ran all the way back to Anhe County and immediately went to Yilan Hotel, where he learned from the front desk that Qu Yi had left Anhe County—departing at six a. m.

Because of that mutated golden-faced thick-tailed monkey, Ding Huan didn't arrive here until just after eight a. m.

After leaving Yilan Hotel, Ding Huan immediately planned to buy a train ticket to Pujiang.

Even if Qu Yi didn't believe his gene serum now, he had to find out where her family lived.

According to his memory, Qu Yi had at most four or five months before the Gene Alliance would take her for experiments.

Wait…

Four or five months? That's exactly when the Blue Star Ten Colleges' enrollment exams end.

The Blue Star Ten Colleges' enrollment exams are less than three months away; if Qu Yi was taken after the exams and then used as a gene test subject four or five months later, it's entirely possible.

The Gene Alliance definitely holds some influence over the Blue Star Ten Colleges' admissions.

After all, the Blue Star Ten Colleges were jointly founded by over a hundred countries, the Martial Alliance, and the Gene Alliance.

When Qu Yi said she was going to Puhaibó, she was 100% going to take the Blue Star Ten Colleges' enrollment exam.

If he went to Puhaibó now and found Qu Yi, would she believe him? Would she agree to fuse with the gene serum he offered?

Since Qu Yi definitely wouldn't fuse with the gene serum he provided, there was no need for him to go to Puhaibó first.

He would still follow his original plan: find fire lizard grade specimens, then return to Luohe City to manufacture the gene serum.

Once the gene serum was made, he would head to Puhaibó ahead of time.

At least during this period, Qu Yi was safe.

…

To get from Anhe County to Lujang City, one must transfer trains once.

The wilderness is extremely unsafe now; between Anhe County and Lujang City, one must pass through many uninhabited zones where gene beasts run rampant.

Normally, trains on these routes cease operation at night.

Ding Huan bought his ticket in time and arrived in Lujang City by evening.

Originally, Ding Huan planned to rest one night in Lujang City, then head out the next day to search for fire lizard grade specimens.

But when Ding Huan arrived in Lujang City, he realized he'd vastly underestimated others.

In Lujang City, you didn't need to go out searching for fire lizard grade specimens—you could just buy them directly.

Almost every street had shops selling fire lizard grade specimens, and the prices were extremely cheap.

Whether you wanted dried or live fire lizard grade specimens, you could buy them here.

Not only that, even European fire lizard grade specimens were available here—though at much higher prices.

After a little inquiry, Ding Huan learned why.

Current fire lizard grade specimens can be used in medicine, enhancing blood circulation and healing wounds for martial artists; moreover, major gene laboratories also heavily require them.

Ding Huan easily bought several live fire lizard grade specimens for just over a hundred Alliance Coins.

"Friend, the fire lizard grade you bought is mediocre—I have hexagonal fire lizard grade…"

Seeing Ding Huan carrying a cage with fire lizard grade specimens, a street vendor rushed to promote his own goods.

Hexagonal fire lizard grade?

"Let me see." Ding Huan stopped. Sure enough, he saw several hexagonal fire lizard grade specimens on the vendor's stall.

"This one's quite large." Ding Huan was very satisfied.

The vendor chuckled, "My fire lizard grade are all wild—you bought mostly farmed ones."

"Did you catch them yourself?" Ding Huan was surprised.

The vendor boasted, "Anyone who knows me, Old Liu, knows my fire lizard grade come from Penglu Mountain. Even students from the Blue Star Ten Colleges have bought from me."

"Impressive. Anyone who dares go into Penglu Mountain to catch fire lizard grade isn't ordinary—Penglu Mountain's gene beasts don't recognize anyone."

Ding Huan casually complimented him, then decided to buy one more from the vendor.

His praise was genuine—Penglu Mountain was full of gene beasts; anyone daring to hunt wild fire lizard grade clearly had skill.

The vendor grew enthusiastic, "Gene beasts are nothing—I once saw a two-horned fire lizard grade in Penglu Mountain."

"To be honest, in all my years, I've never seen a two-horned fire lizard grade over a meter long."

"Two-horned fire lizard grade? One meter long?" Ding Huan's eyes instantly lit up.

This was definitely an elite mutated fire lizard grade—the legends said fire lizard grade carried a trace of divine beast blood, meaning dragon blood.

Ding Huan's mind naturally conjured an image of a one-meter-long two-horned fire lizard grade—a retrograde mutation carrying divine beast blood.

"Absolutely true—maybe even longer than a meter, I saw it with my own eyes. But it was a mutated beast; as soon as I saw it, I ran." The vendor swore earnestly.

"Oh, then I'll take one of your hexagonal fire lizard grade." Ding Huan didn't press further and bought one hexagonal fire lizard grade.

If he weren't in a hurry to reach Puhaibó, Ding Huan would have seriously entered Penglu Mountain to search for the two-horned fire lizard grade.

One could imagine such a two-horned fire lizard grade wouldn't be easy to find.

Even if he wanted to search, he'd have to wait until after meeting Qu Yi—he couldn't risk putting her in danger because of himself.

Ding Huan stayed one night in Lujang City and returned to Luohe on the third day.

Geng Qianxing and the other three were still frantically practicing the Thousand Network Gene Scripture and Basic Long Fist; when Ding Huan returned, no one even noticed.

Without even resting, Ding Huan went straight to the gene laboratory.

If the president of Yujiang University, Tan Bei, hadn't desperately wanted someone from the school to enter one of the Blue Star Ten Colleges, this lab would've been sold long ago.

The school's neglect of the lab was genuinely convenient for Ding Huan.

Ding Huan didn't start by extracting the fire lizard grade's wound-healing gene—he chose first to extract the golden-faced thick-tailed monkey's toxin-resistance gene and synthesize a fusion-ready gene serum.

He would also synthesize the fire lizard grade's healing gene later, but he didn't plan to use it yet.

In his spare time, he intended to see if he could find that one-meter-plus two-horned fire lizard grade.

Extracting and refining gene agents that could fuse with the human body was not the first time Ding Huan had done it; the past few attempts had gone extremely smoothly.

Each time he extracted a gene agent capable of fusing with the human body, Ding Huan felt he understood gene agent production a little better.

So this time, extracting the toxin-resistant gene from the Golden-Faced Thick-Tailed Monkey, Ding Huan wasn't worried he couldn't do it.

Yet things always fail precisely when you think they'll be easy.

Ding Huan had stayed in the lab for two days, filling notebook after notebook with recorded data, yet he still couldn't extract the Golden-Faced Thick-Tailed Monkey's toxin-resistant gene.

If he hadn't chopped off half the monkey's tail and brought it back, he might not have had enough material to continue the experiment.

On the third day, Ding Huan felt he couldn't go on like this—this path led nowhere.

He left the gene lab, took a shower, ate something, rested through the night, then began reconsidering his strategy.

Once he calmed down and thought carefully, vague fragments of gene knowledge gradually surfaced in his mind.

Things he had previously been utterly unable to comprehend slowly became clear as he spent time organizing them.

First, the Spirit Root gene: before genes were even discovered, the Spirit Root must have been a gene.

Later, as celestial energy dwindled, humans living on Earth gradually lost certain traits.

The Spirit Root gene vanished entirely; without a Spirit Root, no matter how potent the cultivation technique or how dense the celestial energy, one could not cultivate at all?

He could produce a Spirit Root gene not merely because he possessed Reincarnation Blood, but more importantly because the Spirit Root gene he made was for himself.

In other words, if he made a Spirit Root gene agent for Seeing Qu Yi, could it truly fuse?

Second, the Skill gene: the toxin-resistant gene he was making now also belonged to the Skill gene category.

Could he not merely borrow the gene's ability—like the White-Faced Thick-Tailed Monkey's toxin resistance?

Instead, could he transform that gene ability into his own bodily constitution gene? That would be different.

One is simply fusing to acquire the ability.

The other is turning it into a bodily instinct, one that requires no fusion of foreign genes to possess.

On the surface, they seemed identical, but Ding Huan vaguely sensed a vast difference—this difference might determine his future height.

Unfortunately, he couldn't yet grasp where that difference lay.

If he couldn't figure it out, don't dwell on it—focus first on producing the toxin-resistant gene agent.

As Ding Huan used those vague gene insights to think deeper, the methods for refining foreign genes that fused with the human body gradually became clear.

For any foreign gene, if humans wished to extract it and refine it into an agent that fused with the body and granted the foreign gene's traits, they had to search.

Yes, search.

If his goal wasn't merely extracting and fusing the foreign gene, but transforming its ability into his own instinct, then he needed more than just a gene fragment…

The fragments he'd previously extracted were merely tiny pieces from the Golden-Faced Thick-Tailed Monkey's toxin-resistant gene, and there were many such fragments on the monkey.

His earlier approach had been to take this tiny fragment and refine it into a toxin-resistant gene agent capable of fusing with the human body.

Fortunately, he hadn't succeeded before.

Now, he wouldn't do it that way—he had to cut out countless such fragments, then combine them with other genes, even his own, to fuse them into a new gene…

This was refining a new gene.

This refining of a new gene was no longer merely borrowing the foreign gene's innate ability.

It was using the foreign gene's expression pattern to transform its skill into his own attribute.

Ding Huan was thrilled—he felt his use of foreign genes had shifted from quantity to quality.

No longer superficial gene manipulation.

But how difficult was it to extract a single complete gene from billions of fragments?

Ding Huan looked at his notebooks. He knew that if he continued like this, even if he filled several truckloads of notebooks, he still might not collect all the necessary gene fragments.

A sudden method appeared in Ding Huan's mind: he could use a gene-death selection method…

Add a certain type of gene to billions of fragments—any fragment incompatible with his needs would be dissolved and killed; wouldn't what remained be exactly what he needed?

Others couldn't add dissolution-killing gene fragments—he could.

With a method in hand, Ding Huan exhaled deeply. He didn't waste even half a moment, rushing back to the lab.

He resumed extracting the Golden-Faced Thick-Tailed Monkey's toxin-resistant gene, refining the agent, and adding dissolution-killing gene fragments…

One day, two days…

One after another, Ding Huan recorded data, then filtered it, adding new dissolution-killing gene fragments…

On the sixth day, Ding Huan excitedly gripped two test tubes filled with crimson-red gene reagents.

He had succeeded—he had produced two doses of toxin-resistant gene agent.

Ding Huan felt these two vials of gene agent were more precious than any Spirit Root gene agent he had ever made.

It wasn't that the Spirit Root gene agent was easier to produce; it was because he had found a new direction in gene fusion—not merely making gene agents anymore.

With this method, he now had greater confidence in making a Spirit Root gene agent for Seeing Qu Yi.

But the prerequisite was Seeing Qu Yi's cooperation—he needed to find a Spirit Root gene agent compatible with Seeing Qu Yi.

He would need Seeing Qu Yi's blood, to locate within Seeing Qu Yi's genome the method for fusing the Spirit Root gene agent.

He must travel to Puhai in advance.

After making his decision, Ding Huan immediately carefully packed one vial of toxin-resistant gene agent into a glass bottle, then drank the other vial in one gulp.

The crimson-red agent entered his mouth and instantly melted into threads of icy snow, spreading through his body in an instant.

Ding Huan's intuition flared—he immediately activated the Luo Shi Jing to begin cultivation.

The next moment, he felt continuous stabbing pains coursing through his body, yet those pains seemed swept away and dissolved by the icy snow threads.

Drops of gray liquid seeped from his fingertips; a wave of dread and fury surged in Ding Huan's heart.

He had been poisoned—and if he hadn't taken his own refined gene agent today…

Even if he didn't die, his cultivation path would likely be blocked at the Gene Foundation Establishment stage.

(That's all for today's update, goodnight friends. While the new book is ongoing, Old Five here humbly asks for your recommendation votes and monthly tickets.)